My plantar fasciitis is getting worse

Of course! Thank you for the tip! I had not even noticed that orange button (I have just started to use this forum last week!).

Cheers!

AJ

After 36 months of extreme pain I finally found the external shock wave therapy treatment. After my first treatment the pain reduce about 50%. 6 month later, I improve my condition about 70%. It has been a year since I have the treatment and I am going back this summer to give the final hit to my condition.

This is a very expensive treatment, but I strongly believe It has save my life and I avoided to fall into a deep depression. check this out: www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7AuY0eb_W0

Wear shoes at all time, when you feel better, gradually walk bear foot because you probably lost almost all your muscle tone in your feet and your calf. walking bear foot will stimulate your natural walking muscle group. Massage under your feet with a golf ball or a special studed ball you can buy in specialize shoop. You have to put lots of pressure under your feet when massaging since the fascia is an almost dead tissu and it is very hard to stimulate bood flow in the fascias. That explain why external shock wave therapy is so effective, cause the shock wave into the tissus increase blood flow and the healing process.

With hard work and money for shoes, shock wave, orthodic you can do it! Never give up or else the pain will increase. Wearing night splint help ease the pain in the morning. Good luck to all of you, if I did it, you can do it too. You will see life in a different way when your done with pf

Hi AurelieJ,

I removed your name from the email post above, as House says you can now use the messaging service to communicate outside of the forum. We do not publish personal email addresses as this opens users up to abuse from spammers and any other form of internet abuse. If users do put their addresses in the format above to "cheat" the system that is their choice but I will carry on removing any I come across. Hopefully with the PM service there is no need to do this now.

Thanks,

Alan (aka Emis Moderator)

Hi all

I have had pf for about 12 years now and really had enough tried everything going. Physio, orthotics, accupuncture, steriod injections, countless stretching exercises, bi-lateral fascia release( as have it in both feet) and lastly shock wave treatment which i paid for privately as nhs wouldnt fund it this cost £500..Really run out of ideas, seeing consultant in a few weeks not sure if to have the op again or not. My calves have always been mega tight so was wondering if having my calf muscles released would help. Any one got any views on this? Has anyone had their heel spurs removed and did that help, as my podiatrist recommended having this done?I have also been told not to walk barefoot but i feel this releaves the pain a little.Any advise or treatments that have helped any of you would be much appreciatted

alison

Hello,

I have joined this discussion and can relate to all PF sufferers. I am 4 years onto this condition and it is one of the most debilitating sports injuries I ever got. I get so depressed but accepting PF now.

I used to be a sporty 34 year old teacher - now pretty much crippled and finding the going tough with bilateral case.

Tried all conservative treatments to no avail - Bikram yoga and orthotics helps but sometimes flares up after session.

Please drop me a line as always keen to hear other stories.

With thanks

Toby R

Thanks all for your input and advice. Its now been 3 weeks since my worst pain started and I see no improvement at all. Both feet are still hurting like hell, I cannot go out the house and cant stand on my feet. It still feels like I have bruising all over, from the heel to the toes. I am starting physio next week but my pain is so severe that I am wondering if it will help.

I am doing some research about disability benefits. By the look of things I fear that I will still be crippled in 6 months time and I am wondering if plantar fasciitis sufferers are entitled to some sort of benefits after a while. To me, this debilitating condition makes you absolutely unable to work and people should be entitled to some benefits but unfortunately I have read that most physicians do not consider PF as a disability because some people manage to cure it. They want you to try all treatments available (including shock waves, injections, ultrasound, electricity)...which are very costly and most probably dont work, before considering an application and in most cases the application gets rejected.

Has anyone heard of a successful application or does anyone receive benefits for PF ? I would be very interested to know.

Many thanks, and all the best to everyone.

Aurelie

I have suffered from Acute Plantar Fasciitis for nearly 2 years, in that time I have put on considerable amounts of weight due to the pain of walking, its ruining my life, I have tried insoles, physio, stretching, sports massage everything and NOTHING worked. However I did some research and found that New Balance trainers are supposed to be good for the condition, I found a pair that I liked with the technology New Balance recommend for sufferers of the condition on their website and bought some today from Sports Directfor £43 I put them on and within half an hour my right foot had no pain at all and the pain in my left (worst) foot has improved dramatically.

To give you an idea of how bad my condition is, the pain has caused me to walk in such a way that I have chronic pain not only in my heel and soul of my foot but in the bones at the top of my foot, my ankles and I'm my left leg behind my knee. I blame the other pains entirely on the way my condition has made me walk.

After today's experience I had to share this with you as I actually cannot believe the difference.

For those of you interested there is a section on the New Balance website to explain what technology to look for in their shoes. I have gone for the W780 which has a torsion control built into the soul, it has added padding in the heel and arch area and it has motion control to improve gait and to stop your foot rolling to thw side.

Try them, they are worth the money and the souls are removable for any custom orthotics you might have.

Good luck!

Hi I had this condition many years ago aged 18 and had an operation in the end which totally cured it. Whether the op is still available now I don't know

Best wishes

Thank you SO much "gembot3000" for sharing your experience and your recommendation to buy the New Balance trainers. My condition has not improved at all and I have basically been bed-bound for the last 6 weeks. The pain is everywhere, from the heel to the toes. I am just coming out from the physio and he said that he has not seen anything that bad in both feet!

I am also suspecting some nerves damages so I am doing my best to get an EMG (electromyography) and MRI scan done. I am hoping to get a GP referral to see a neurologist, but it might take a while.

I will have a look on the New Balance website today and will most definitely order some trainers. It might work, it might not work but as you said it is worth trying. Thanks again for sharing.

Aurelie

gembot3000 : just one question: do you add any custom-made orthotics insole in your NB trainers ? I am not sure which size to choose in case I need to add an insole at some points...

Thanks!

No I didn't, however you can remove the insole completely to use your own, I have worn them again today and the pain in my worst foot has decreased dramatically, and the pain has improved when not wearing them i.e when nipping to the bathroom in the morning. I genuinely cannot believe the improvement, its crazy! I thought I would be looking at a few weeks before any improvement not days! If you Google New Balance Plantar Fasciitis loads of stuff comes up, apparently they even made a trainer specifically for the condition!

The ones I got from Sports Direct are W780 and are navy blue with a tiny bit of purple so they don't look too bad at all. I'm going to use them to walk in from now on and have some supportive yet stylish brogues from clarkes.

Good luck, fingers crossed they work for you x

Thanks for your reply! This is such good news...for you anyway!

Where was your pain exactly ? Mine is everywhere and all the time, not just in the morning. I literally cannot walk around my house, stand on my feet for a minute, and walking outside is a nightmare. I use two crutches when I have to go to the physio.

Anyway thank you so much! Hope these trainers cure this dreadful condition.

All the best,

Aurelie

My pain started in my heel and the soul of my foot but it got worse and effected all of my foot, my ankles and even my knee because the pain made me walk funny, the pain was all the time I was walking or standing with occasional stabbing pains when not walking, the pain was worse in the morning or after sitting down for a period of time it got better after I walked for about a minute and then got worse again.

The trainers have helped me loads the pain when I walk in them has gone completely from one foot and the other foot is almost pain free I would say its 95% better. The pain has improved while not wearing them too I would say a 50% reduction in pain with bare feet

Thank you for replying. This is very encouraging. I do hope I will be the same for me...

From what you are describing your symptoms are the same than mine, i.e a constant pain everywhere in your feet! So I am confident the trainers will help me too. Because at first I was worried that they would make my arches hurt but apparently you were suffering from your arches too before wearing the trainers and it does not sound like the trainers made them worse.

I havent bought them yet because I am not sure about my size. I would like to go and try some NB trainers in the Sportsdirect shop first. I hope I will find the same model than yours in the shop, and then I could buy them straight away, if not I will order them online.

Many thanks again!

Aurelie

Thought I should post an update on my condition and recovery process.

After almost 7 months of resting and pampering myself I went for a run today! Such a great feeling, I can't even express how blissfully happy I am at the moment! Been also going for daily long walks (10-15km) lately and my feet are fine.

So, there is hope there for everybody. I think the most important thing is staying positive no matter what and believing 100% that you will recover and life will go back to normal again.

I never had any physiotherapy or used any orthotics. Just lots of resting, listening to my body and staying off my feet as much as possible. Also as soon as I could I started walking barefoot because we are designed to do it. I did a bit of calf stretching twice every day as well. Apart from that I just let my body to recover and heal itself naturally.

To all of you who still are in pain - my heart goes out for you because I know what it`s like. Been there myself. Don`t give up and don`t lose hope. I am running again and so will you!

God bless!